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Middleport native William Outerbridge (1906-1986) initiated the first shots of American involvement in World War II at 6:37 a.m. prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Outerbridge was commander of the destroyer USS Ward, which engaged and attacked a Japanese midget submarine as it attempted to slip into Pearl Harbor at Hawaii. He reported the action and the sinking of the submarine before the attack by Japan. In 2005, the submarine was found and the shell holes in the coning tower confirmed Outerbridge’s report. During WWII he went on to command the USS O’Brien, which served in support of the Normandy D-Day Landings on the beaches and at the port of Cherbourg. He then served in the Pacific theater until the end of the war supporting American efforts to take back islands from the Japanese. He later commanded the cruiser USS Los Angeles.
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King Solomon “Sol” White was born in Bellaire on June 12, 1868. A Baseball legend, he was an all-around player, manager, and organizer in the Pre-Negro Leagues (1887-1912) and the Negro Leagues (1920-1926). White first played with integrated baseball clubs the Bellaire Globes (1884-1886) and Wheeling Green Stockings (1887). After 1887-1888 color barriers were imposed on baseball, White played on segregated minor league teams. They included: the Pittsburgh Keystones, Cuban Giants, York Colored Monarchs, Cuban X-Giants, Page Fence Giants, and Chicago Columbia Giants. As a coach, he helped organize and lead the powerhouse Philadelphia Giants to their 1904-1907 championships. White died on August 26, 1955, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Staten Island’s Frederick Douglas Memorial Cemetery. In 2006, “Sol” White was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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The German Reformed Church was organized on Kelleys Island in 1865. The congregation built this church from island stone in 1866 on 1/2 acre of land purchased from Alfred S. and Hannah Kelley. By 1871, the congregation, one of five on the island, heard services in German and had 25 families as members, including those of Baumler, Beatty, Becker, Boker, Burger, Cattenach, Dodge, Elfers, Fischer, Gerlach, Hess, Huber, Jordon, Keifer, Lange, Nowalk, Pringnitz, Renter, Schaedler, Scheele, Smith, Stoll, Suhr, and Trieschman. Rev. A. William Von Kaske was the congregation’s last resident minister, leaving in 1915. The church’s final service, a funeral for William Burger, was held in 1942. The church’s Ladies Aid Society was able to maintain the building until 1957, after which it was left vacant. The Kelleys Island Historical Association leased the church in 1981 and was granted the deed in 1986.
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Warren Gard (1873-1929), son of Samuel Z. Gard and Mary Duke, was born in Hamilton, Ohio. He established his practice in Hamilton after graduating from Cincinnati Law School and being admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1894. Gard served as Butler County Prosecuting Attorney from 1898-1903, and as a judge on the Court of Common Pleas from 1907-1912. In 1910, he married Pearl Zuver Woods (1875-1946). In 1912, he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 1913-1921. Gard delivered a eulogy for his friend, Warren G. Harding, on August 8, 1923, the national day of mourning for the deceased president. Gard had been a 35-year member of the bar when he died. He is buried next to his wife in the Gard plot in Greenwood Cemetery. (Continued on other side)